Virbhadra may not be the choice of Congress for CM: Kaul

Updated: Friday, November 9, 2012, 11:31 [IST]

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Shimla, Nov 7: Senior Congress leader Kaul Singh on Wednesday said that Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and HPCC president Virbhadra Singh may not be the automatic choice of the party for the top post in the state.

"Zero tolerance for corruption would be (the) cardinal principle in deciding chief ministerial candidate by Congress High Command," Singh said. "AICC president Sonia Gandhi has time and again said from every platform that the Congress party will not compromise with corruption and this should be enough indication for all concerned," he told reporters here after returning from hectic campaigning.

He said Virbhadra Singh had to resign from the Union ministry in the wake of court framing corruption charges against him but he was appointed as HPCC chief in the larger interest of the party.

"I had also resigned from the post of PCC chief in the interest of the party and I am always ready for any sacrifice for keeping the party united and I am sure that my resignation from the post would prove to be a blessing in disguise for me," he added.

Singh, a known critic of Virbhadra Singh, who was seen as a claimant for chief ministership, said he had never hinted that he was in this race. The MLAs would decide the Chief Minister, but the final approval would rest with the Congress President, he said. Confident of a comfortable win from his Darang constituency in Mandi, he claimed the Congress would sweep the polls with majority and form a stable government.

"Some people of my own party have been spreading the rumour that I am losing. But I am comfortably winning, despite the fact that two Congress rebels were pushed into the fray against me," he said.

"Everything is in the notice of the party High Command that who has done what in the run up to polls and who is behind the rebels," he said. Singh also thanked the people of Himachal Pradesh for voting against BJP's "misrule" in the assembly polls.